Modern vehicles typically incorporate a wide range of restraint systems, such as belt restraints, head restraints, and the like. In conjunction with such restraint components, intelligent systems are often employed to determine whether individual seats are occupied, whether and to what extent occupants have pre-deployed their respective seat belts, the estimated weight/size of individual occupants, and other such information that can be used to characterize the effective state of the various restraint system components. While such systems are highly effective, it remains the case that, due to the number of components typically required to monitor the restraint system parameters (e.g., belt spool sensors, seat weight sensors, etc.), there remains a need to further reduce the complexity, weight, and size of such restraint systems and improving the ability for the system to making accurate classifications.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide improved systems and methods that are capable of detecting and classifying the state of restraint systems used in vehicles and other moving platforms. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.